I posted this answer, and around 20 minutes later another user posted theirs. It was in fact another approach to solve the OP's question. But after some minutes, the other user edited their answer and added exactly what I explain on my own answer but with little different words. What should I do in this case? Does it deserve a downvote?

Whenever I use other's answers as mine, I always cite them and refer to the URL of said answer, so the OP knows the source from where I got the information, and I think it's acceptable that some experienced users may answer almost the same thing without referring other's answers, simply because it may be common knowledge for them, but come on, this was on the same question, I feel as if it were a rip-off off my answer.

I thought this would be related to my question, but they're different issues:

Looking at the two answers and the edit history it looks kind of lame, but I'm not sure downvoting is the most appropriate reaction. I would want to here the community's opinion on this, but I would be tempted to flag it an ask for an edit rollback.
– apaulJul 1 '14 at 5:41

1

@apaul34208 I would like to hear their opinion too, but speaking about flagging, aren't flags only when the content is offensive or things of that sort?
– arielnmzJul 1 '14 at 5:54

3

I saw a similar thing happen this morning. Someone answered the question well while another had the most simplistic and unusable answer provided. As soon as he saw the other answer, he quickly edited his to give that answer. I just upvoted the first one (who did it the way I would have as it was very elegant) and ignored the second.
– Jane SJul 1 '14 at 5:57

@intracept I've got a little bit carried away and told the answerer that he may do a rollback to his original approach, before he appended my approach. But I agree with from from a voter's point of view, I tend to do the same.
– arielnmzJul 1 '14 at 6:03

Other than noticing that user that copying your answer isn't fair, you can flag the other user answer to the moderator's attention.
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 8:39

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@FrankN.Stein and the flag will be rejected as the answer is not offensive, not spam and there is nothing really wrong with it so why would a moderator delete it??!
– user2140173Jul 1 '14 at 8:52

3

... copyright infringement? ;) Jokes apart, why the winner is... who arrives second and not who arrives first? The second answer should be deleted: 1 - because it's unfair. 2 - because it doesn't add anything to the first answer.
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 9:00

@FrankN.Stein that's a whole another topic... the question here was should I downvote? - and the most logical - At least to me answer that comply with the site rules is: no, you should not downvote.
– user2140173Jul 1 '14 at 9:08

2

@arielnmz updated my answer with a credit to your name, hope that resolves everything. My intention was not to copy from you or get more upvotes than you. By the way, the solution for the said problem was too trivial for stealing which already existed on other posts on SO. But I couldn't say you stole from other answers out there. No offence.... Peace...V
– Fr0zenFyrJul 1 '14 at 9:08

3

This is another fact to consider: the answer is trivial. So different users can provide it (sometimes with a difference of few seconds in answering). Without stealing.
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 9:14

@Fr0zenFyr I was enforcing your concept. I also upped, so...
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 9:47

was trying to edit the comment but this damn internet connection broke and time expired. I wasn't supposed to address that to you. No offense...
– Fr0zenFyrJul 1 '14 at 9:49

1

If you feel that another answer was a copy of your idea, you can always leave a polite comment. I gave the much deserved credits in my latest edit(though I didn't "steal" anything, I just didn't add 2nd approach to my answer because I thought it was already answered by another answer, but then it occurred to me that I can improve my answer with both ideas I got). It's no big deal giving credits to that person(OP in this case). People will only look at a solution than who answered it or when they answered. Quality of solutions is all that matters in the end.
– Fr0zenFyrJul 1 '14 at 9:52

2

I don't think you should down vote it. When someone comes along later and sees that the answer is down voted they are left looking at a valid answer and wondering what is wrong with it.
– Jeff Scott BrownJul 1 '14 at 15:53

2

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" - Charles Caleb Colton - so I wouldn't waste a downvote on it. If someone wants to copy my answer, so be it - I have hopes that others will notice the post/edit times and upvote appropriately.
– Bob JarvisJul 2 '14 at 13:50

4 Answers
4

Everyone should give credit if information is taken from other answers in an own answer.

I once had a case where someone copied exactly my code example and posted it as an answer leaving only the last line away which actually made the whole thing useless. I flagged for moderator attention complaining about plagiarism and asking for removal. The answer was removed. According to this comment the reason was most likely unattributed copying.

It might be an alternative to flag for moderator attention and ask for removal but it really should be a real clear case (99% agreement, hours or days later, ...).

What I actually would do is edit the duplicate/plagiarised answer and refer to the answer which was before. If anything there is nothing wrong with editing and improving answers on Stack Overflow and giving credit where credit is due is one of the principles. There is a reason why the content license is an attribution license. We shouldn't be too sloppy with attribution.

Or you could leave a comment of the form:

Did you by chance read answer XXX before posting your answer? Your answer seems to be almost identical to answer XXX.

Of course I wouldn't do it too often because I'm quite lazy and my time is valuable. Only in cases where my answer was quite a lot of work and I have the impression the other answer is a shameless copy.

if the moderator handling that flag of yours was following the rules, then reason for deletion is most definitely unattributed copying from your answer. Answer being wrong is not a flaggable offense, so you can dismiss "because it didn't work" with 99,999% probability
– gnatJul 1 '14 at 11:12

I see no plagiarism in the linked question. The answers are similar because it's a trivial concept and even if there was other 50 answers they would all be nearly the same. I feel that you're discussing a totally different matter here - a case when an answer is completely ripped off of someone... this is not the case here.
– user2140173Jul 1 '14 at 11:33

Maybe it's time to re-read the question paying special attention to the actual question asked What should I do in this case? Does it deserve a downvote?
– user2140173Jul 1 '14 at 11:36

@mehow I answered the question in a general sense so it can be applied to many cases but that doesn't mean it doesn't applies also to this special case. The questioner has made a comment, the other answerer has given attribution, both answers are sufficiently distinct to be a clear case of plagiarism - everything I recommend in my answer is done. However I agree that the initial comment could have been formulated nicer and more polite. Indeed asking for removal was asking for too much, however kindly one requests it.
– TrilarionJul 1 '14 at 11:51

3

@Trilarion it's good to know about more cases like this. And thanks for your suggestion on the comments, I really didn't know how to politely express that.
– arielnmzJul 1 '14 at 17:05

Ultimately, Stack Overflow is about trying to get the best questions and the best answers. Everything else is just secondary (or even lower).

For those who say "but what about fairness?", the answer is simple: If two answers are equally good, then those two answers are equally deserving of upvotes. That's what's fair.

I can understand that some people are disappointed, or even a little hurt, when someone else gets points for seemingly "cheating". Because I get those feelings myself. But guess what? That's life. And just like in life, Stack Overflow has some measures in place to try to detect cheating when it happens, and to discourage further cheating. Some of these measures are technical and some of them are social.

But in the end, just as in life, the measures aren't perfect, and not every cheater will get caught every time. Some folks will be able to go through their entire life cheating and never get caught. If these people are not causing harm, then let God or karma or whatever deal with them. It's not worth your stress and negative energy. It really, truly isn't.

It would be a better use of your time and effort to look for other questions that you can answer. Or, if you're below the rep needed for automatic editing, you can also suggest edits, which has the chance to improve the quality of the site and earn you some points as well.

the problem that what looks so nice in theory does not that way in practice. Two equally good answers almost never get equal amount of score. Moreover sometimes completely wrong answers got at the top and would be there for long long time. One of the examples is stackoverflow.com/q/728260/1090562 . One of the highest voted answers is totally wrong.
– Salvador DaliJul 2 '14 at 1:54

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@SalvadorDali: I never said two equally good answers get equal upvotes. I said they are both equally deserving of upvotes. I actually thought I spent most of my answer talking about how people don't always get what they deserve, and how to handle that.
– John YJul 2 '14 at 2:26

1

But unfairness is likely to prevent community members from answering questions. You can't have quality content if you don't give proper credit to whom it deserves it. Otherwise there would be no points in the first place right?
– kon psychJul 7 '14 at 2:04

@konpsych: But Stack Overflow is mostly fair. The highest-rep users do tend to be the ones who have contributed the most; the highest-voted questions and answers do tend to be the best ones. The fact that there are exceptions doesn't invalidate the whole system.
– John YJul 7 '14 at 3:31

Yeah.... not even 1% of all the people registered is here for the reasons Stack Overflow was invented for...

Stack Overflow is not a game.

This points do attract people, but flipping out because someone got a point or two that you desparately wanted is purely CHILDISH.

Does it deserve a downvote?

No, why? Don't be selfish and don't take it so personal.

Your comment

I'm glad that you want to help the OP, but I think your most recent edit adds what I've already explained on my answer, 50 minutes before yours. So I kindly request that you perform a rollback to your single, original approach – arielnmz 1 hour ago

is completely redundant, selfish, off-topic, and not-constructive.

Don't act like you owe the right to be the first and only person to answer and don't request other users to rollback their edits back to a previous state... We want quality questions and answers here therefore each answer should be the best it can.

I understand that from the POV from someone passing by, but it actually does feel unfair to the one that put effort in generating that answer that someone else just copies it.
– Patrick HofmanJul 1 '14 at 7:37

3

I completely understand your point of view and I agree on the being selfish part (the comment was a suggestion, not in my original plans, that's why I came here asking first). But I agree with Patrick on the effort part too. It's certainty the first time I stumble upon this issue, it's not a big deal with that question, but I'd certainly get upset if it were a more complex or elaborated answer. That's the core of my question. We all put something of us on some answers and to see them being plagiarized isn't something one can oversee so easily.
– arielnmzJul 1 '14 at 7:55

4

@arielnmz this has happened to me at least 20% on all answers I gave on this site. People want to be fastest guns in the west but then they realize they lack some information and update their answers. It's normal here, there is nothing to be done about it, just accept it. Upvote the other answer, get a sportsman ship badge and live happily because the other answer does not hurt you in any way, does it? ;)
– user2140173Jul 1 '14 at 8:06

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@mehow OK, then what happens, if I answered first, then a lurker comes and steals my answer and gets accepted and possibly liked in my place?! Doesn't this make you nervous?
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 8:41

1

@FrankN.Stein not at all. it happens all the time here. I just got used to it and even delete my own answer if it's not any different than the accepted one.
– user2140173Jul 1 '14 at 8:42

So, don't blame the THIEVE, for stealing, just who gave him the prize? If the other answerer wouldn't steal MY answer, I wouldn't get mad.
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 8:48

6

In my opinion, who COPIES from my answer IS a thief. It's like reverse engineering a program to copy it's routines. And get a profit out someone else's work
– FantômasJul 1 '14 at 9:45

1

It is also quite pointless to compare it to reverse engineering.. you know, this site is CC
– Lorenzo DemattéJul 1 '14 at 15:32

2

@mehow I'll disagree with you. If you check the edit's history of both answers and the timestamps of the comments, you'd notice that they updated their question after reading my answer, and as they've admitted, they just wanted to improve theirs with mine. So it was not a case of trivial answers since there was clearly enough time between comment and edit for them not to notice what's stated on my answer.
– arielnmzJul 1 '14 at 17:10

4

Call me naive, but I'm surprised this answer has a net negative score. I guess the thing the downvoters forget (or more likely can't bear to accept) is that it is NOT Stack Overflow's mission to be fair. PERIOD. Rep is an approximation of the community's trust and esteem, and is merely part of a mechanism aimed at achieving the real mission, which is to have the best-quality questions and best-quality answers as possible. PERIOD.
– John YJul 1 '14 at 21:32

2

This is the correct answer. Stack Overflow is not a competition to see who can make the most unicorn points. It is a community-built database of useful questions and answers. It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference who provides each answer. This whole question is ridiculous.
– Dawood ibn KareemJul 2 '14 at 2:08

2

@David SO also heavily applies gamification principles to achieve that, which I'm sure we all agree is one of the major reasons for its success. And if you look around at games where cheating is possible and not effectively prevented, the social and economical effects of this can be rather severe. So there's a good argument for why something that many consider "cheating" should better be suppressed.
– VooJul 2 '14 at 13:22

1

I am just surprised people misinterpret the entire question here which is specific to the examples given by the OP. I don't mind downvotes on a correct answer - the score demonstrates that only 18(+) are here for the right reasons and 32(-) are not... enough said...
– user2140173Jul 2 '14 at 13:28

1

@Voo If it were possible to convert reputation points to dollars, I would agree with you. But at the end of the day, Stack Overflow consists of a community of people helping each other, and building something which is for the common good. It's a group effort, across a very large group. Someone complaining that the completely meaningless unicorn points have been distributed unfairly has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. This really is a childish question.
– Dawood ibn KareemJul 2 '14 at 13:54